House defeats narrow funding bills

The House defeated three targeted government funding bills, as the first day of a government shutdown ended on Capitol Hill.

The bills would have funded national parks and veterans affairs, and one would have allowed the District of Columbia to use local revenue to fund governmental functions. The legislation came up under a fast-track procedure, which required two-thirds majority for House passage.

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Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama said they were opposed to the bills.

“These piecemeal efforts are not serious and they are no way to run a government,” said White House spokesman Amy Brundage.

The House on Wednesday will take up similar bills, including one to fund the National Institutes of Health. Senate Republicans were moving forward with similar procedures. The idea originated with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), sparking Democratic criticism.

The consideration of narrow bills is a clear attempt to show that Republicans are working, and Democrats are stalling.

Indeed, with most of the government closed, House Republicans are trying to do everything they can to show that they want to negotiate their way out of this mess — unlike Senate Democrats, who they say are intransigent.

There’s absolutely no sign whether this shutdown will last for a few days or several weeks.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sat around a table in the Capitol with eight Republican negotiators, in an attempt to illustrate that the Senate Democrats are not willing to hash out differences over funding the Affordable Care Act.

“We’re here to say to the Senate Democrats, come and talk to us,” Cantor said, sitting next to Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee. “This is how we resolve our differences and can work our way out of this kind of situation.”

Democrats point out that the House has refused to enter into similar negotiations over a budget agreement and a long-term farm bill. Senate Democrats say they will not negotiate until the House passes a six-week CR without health-care policy attached.

The gulf between House Republicans and Senate Democrats — the cause of the first shutdown since 1996 — remains wide. House Republicans have refused to fund Obamacare as part of the appropriations process — even for a few weeks. Senate Democrats and Obama , however, will not negotiate health care policy as part of the government-funding discussion.

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) took to Twitter to say “We fought the good fight. Time for a clean CR.” Boehner would need more than 100 Republicans to take that position to preserve his internal politics.

Members of the House expect to be in session and in Washington until the shutdown is resolved.

Meanwhile, the effects of the shutdown on the sprawling Capitol campus were obvious Tuesday morning. Lines to enter some of the House office buildings snaked around sidewalks. Some garages were closed. Signs posted in the Capitol noted that some dining halls would be shuttered during the shutdown.

Meanwhile, some House lawmakers say they will not accept their pay during a shutdown: Florida Republican Reps. Tom Rooney and Vern Buchanan announced they wouldn’t accept their $174,000-per-year salary.

The Senate has passed a continuing resolution that would fund government until Nov. 15, but funded the health care law. The House has passed multiple CRs, but all of them have taken swipes at the Affordable Care Act — and each one has been rejected by the Democratic Senate. First, the House passed a bill that defunded the entire health care law. Then they passed a bill to delay the law for a year, while repealing the medical device tax that funds the law. On Monday, they passed another bill, which would’ve canceled health-insurance subsidies for members of Congress, their staff and the White House, while also delaying for one year the mandate that individuals buy health insurance.